


The Power of One

by thealphagate_archivist



Category: Stargate SG-1
Genre: Action/Adventure, Friendship, Humor, challenge
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2007-06-13
Updated: 2007-06-13
Packaged: 2019-02-02 07:42:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,549
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12722430
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thealphagate_archivist/pseuds/thealphagate_archivist
Summary: Daniel finds himself alone in the gate room, and the clock is ticking. Season 9 spoilers.





	The Power of One

**Author's Note:**

> Note from the archivists: this story was originally archived at [The Alpha Gate](https://fanlore.org/wiki/The_Alpha_Gate), a Stargate SG-1 archive, which began migration to the AO3 in 2017 when its hosting software, eFiction, was no longer receiving support. To preserve the archive, we began manually importing its works to the AO3 as an Open Doors-approved project in November 2017. We e-mailed all creators about the move and posted announcements, but may not have reached everyone. If you are this creator and it hasn't transferred to your AO3 account, please contact us using the e-mail address on [The Alpha Gate collection profile](https://archiveofourown.org/collections/thealphagate).

  
Author's notes: This was written as a response to a DFR challenge. Thanks again, Donna for a great story idea.  
  
Feedback is always welcome and appreciated!  


* * *

The emptiness of the room surrounded him, unnerving him with its eerie calm. In the red glow of the emergency lights, Daniel struggled to sit up. He was sitting on the floor beside the ramp. Alone. The gate room was dark. Empty and dark, except for the incessant flashing of the lights which made his head hurt. Damn! A power surge had thrown him off the ramp and closed the wormhole. At least he was pretty sure that's what had happened. He didn't remember anything after hitting the ramp but he did remember a loud crack like thunder and a bright flash of light before the gate winked out. What was he supposed to do now? He'd stayed until the very last, hoping that Vala was on her way. No one remembered her going through the gate and he certainly wasn't leaving without her. 

The cold of the concrete floor sent a chill up his arm as he pushed himself so that his back was against the ramp. The sizzle and a flash of light behind him startled him so much he nearly lost his balance and fell back to the floor. He locked his arm, pulled his head in close to his body and waited for the shower of sparks to stop falling. Singed spots of fabric on the arms and legs of his uniform and the faint smell of ozone made him gasp. He ran a hand quickly through his hair hoping he wasn't on fire. A last pop from an electrical circuit and all was quiet again. 

Daniel's arm started to shake. He couldn't stay here on the floor forever. With an effort he pushed himself to his feet until he was leaning against the ramp. The rain of sparks had lit the room for a few seconds sending a searing pain through his skull. Now, in the eerie red flash of the emergency lights, he tried to take stock of his injuries. His head hurt like hell, pounding in rhythm with the lights. His arm shook, hopefully from the adrenaline coursing through him. If it wasn't adrenaline then he'd hurt more than his head. His breath came in short, shallow puffs of air (adrenaline again) and he felt hot. He licked his lips and forced himself to take a deep breath. It seemed to help. His heart slowed down, giving him a moment to figure out what had happened. 

The evacuation had been quick. Word from the Tok'ra, an ally who made limited contact in these difficult times, had warned them of a threat to the base--a threat in the form of a bomb—a bomb supposedly programed to go off in--Daniel focused on the blurry numbers of his watch--programed to go off in 39 minutes, give or take a minute. Nope, take a minute. It was now 38 minutes to blast off.

Well, that sucked. 

He looked at the gate, relieved to know that most of his team was safe. They'd locked down the base and looked for the bomb until they'd reached the hour mark. Then Landry had made the decision to evacuate through the gate. Sam had gone through in the first wave to get the Alpha Site organized for its arrivals. Teal'c was already off world making arrangements to return permanently to SG1. Mitchell and Landry had gone in the last group, and Daniel was supposed to be with them. He'd heard Mitchell yell at him to get his ass in gear and he remembered promising, “I'll be right behind you,” only to be hit with an energy surge strong enough to shut the gate down. He'd been shut out. Literally. He'd ended up on his behind at the bottom of the ramp. 

He looked up at the now empty control room. With his head pounding the way it was, he wondered if he'd be able to make it up the stairs to redial the gate—if the gate would redial. His areas of expertise were wide and varied but didn't include electrical wiring. For all he knew, the gate had suffered some sort of electrical failure and he wouldn't be able to dial out again. And no one would be dialing in. He sighed and pushed himself carefully away from the support of the metal railing. He wouldn't know anything until he got to the control room. Maybe someone else was still on the base who could dial the gate, although he hoped not. If he couldn't get things up and running in the next (his watch seemed more blurred than before) 35 minutes, he and anyone else who was left, were going to be buried under the mountain—or perhaps more accurately, in the mountain. Surely, he must be the last one. Anyone left would be in the gate room waiting to leave. Vala must have gone through earlier and no one had seen her in the crush of people trying to exit the base for the Alpha Site. 

The room dipped alarmingly for a minute and he put out his hand to get a firm grip on the gate railing beside him. He pushed off taking a few wobbly steps to the door when it opened and someone rushed in.

“Daniel, I need your help.”

“Vala?” Startled, Daniel backed up. “I thought you were already gone. Why aren't you gone?”

“I'm not gone. I'm going. But first you need to help Doctor Lam.”

“Doctor Lam?” Daniel was having trouble concentrating. “You're not going anywhere. I don't know if we can dial the gate again.” Now he remembered, Vala wasn't gone. That's why he'd been the last one at the gate; he'd been waiting for Vala to show up. No one got left behind—that was the rule.

“Of course we can. We need to go into that claustrophobic little room and put in the right numbers. You've done that before.” She was pulling on his arm oblivious to the fact that Daniel was shuffling along beside her. “But we have to go to the infirmary first.”

Going to the infirmary sounded like a good idea, even better than the control room if Doctor Lam was still here. But she shouldn't be here. She should already be at the Alpha Site. They'd shipped out the patients hours ago. “Why is Carolyn still here?”

Vala slowed, still holding his arm. “Carolyn? I didn't know you were on a first name basis with the doctor.” She eyed him suspiciously. “Are you two close? Why didn't I know about this?” 

Vala assumed that all the gossip on the base made its way to her eventually, which was true because she started most of it. This time, however, there was no gossip. He and Carolyn were friendly co-workers. With the amount of time he spent in the infirmary, he'd introduced himself to her almost on her first day at base. He didn't want her to read his rather hefty medical file before she'd met him in person. 

“Not close,” Daniel said through clenched teeth. Although he'd like to be much closer at the moment. Close enough to have an shot of something that would ease an ever increasing headache. Vala planted her feet, jolting him to a stop beside her. He tried to keep a groan from escaping him.

“What did you do?” she demanded.

“Nothing,” Daniel said faintly.

“Nothing? Is that why your face is whiter than the sheets on my bed? Which is not a good color, by the way, on you or on my bed. Unless of course you're on my sheets on my bed in which case--” She let go of his arm so that she could turn to face him head on leaving him standing on unsteady feet in the middle of the corridor. 

Daniel missed the arm because he wasn't sure he could stand without it. “Bumped my head,” he mumbled. “I'm fine. Just need an aspirin for this headache. I'll get one in the infirmary.”

“A headache?” She reached around to brush the back of his head. Her hand came back covered in blood. 

Looking at the blood made Daniel queasy. He'd felt better when he didn't know he was bleeding. Not that he hadn't seen blood in his day, lots of blood, but right now he didn't want to see his blood. His knees gave out unexpectedly. 

Vala grabbed his arm as he slid to the floor. “Daniel?”

“I'm fine,” he whispered. “Just need to rest a minute.”

She crouched down beside him. “I'd love to call for a gurney and a medical team, but I think we're the only ones left on the base. And *Carolyn*.” While her words were snide, her cool hand on his forehead felt wonderful. “Can you walk?”

“Do I have a choice?” Daniel answered. He started to pull himself up but the weight of Vala's hand pushed him down. 

“Stay still for a minute. You look like you're going to pass out and I'm not strong enough to carry you. You'd have to stay in the hallway.” She turned herself until she was sitting snug against Daniel's shoulder.

 

After a very short rest and a lot of pushing and tugging on Vala's part, they made it to the infirmary to find Carolyn and a patient, Lieutenant Stolz, that she'd considered unfit to move. Despite the need for haste, she'd insisted on treating Daniel's injuries while they talked. 

“What do we do now?” Carolyn asked.

“If we can't dial out,” Vala said, “I think we're dead.” She was sitting on a gurney across from Daniel's bed, looking at Stolz and swinging her feet back and forth.

“Well, that's a bad plan,” Daniel mumbled.

Vala stopped swinging her feet and looked at him. “What?”

“Nothing,” Daniel said. “It makes sense that if there's a bomb, it's on a timer—at least according to the Tok'ra, and since it hasn't gone off yet, we still have time to find it.” His watch was telling him they had 22 minutes. 

Vala jumped off the gurney. “Oh, yes, Daniel. That's such a good plan. We only have to search 28 floors. I'll start at the top from the big heavy closed doors.”

“I'm open to suggestions,” Daniel said, angrily. He hissed as Carolyn taped the bandage tight around his ribcage. The analgesic she'd given him had done very little to control the pain, but she was unwilling to give him any more.

“A crack rib or two I think, and a cracked head for sure.” She'd cleaned and bandaged the cut on the back of Daniel's head after he'd refused to allow her to run a CAT scan. “You should be in bed,” she said easing his arms into a clean shirt.

“If we survive this, I'll check myself in for a week,” he promised, “but right now, I think we need to go hunt for a bomb.” He looked at the two of them glaring at him. “Look, I can't do this alone and we don't have much time. I know the chances of finding it are small,” that was the understatement of the century, “but I think we have to try.” He saw them look at one another and then at the floor. “Well?”

“The three musketeers,” Carolyn said with a small smile. 

Daniel smiled back. She was in. 

“What do chocolate bars have to do with anything?” Vala asked. “Oh, wait. It's another one of those cultural references that I'm supposed to understand but don't. You know, since I'm an alien here, you could use language that I could actually understand--”

“Vala.” Daniel cut her off. “The three musketeers were a fictional team that remained loyal to the king and fought to keep him on the throne.” Seeing Vala's look of skepticism he added, “They were the good guys.”

“Fighting to maintain an absolute monarchy doesn't sound very good to me.”

“That's not the point. The point is they were a team. Which we need to be.”

“Wasn't there a fourth musketeer?” Carolyn asked as she helped Daniel off the bed.

“No, actually, the fourth person in the story, d'Artagnan, wasn't one of the title characters.” He tried to concentrate on literary trivia instead of the pain in his head. “The three musketeers were Athos, Porthos, and Aramis.”

“Which one was the best looking?” Vala wanted to know. When the other two just looked at her, she said, “If I'm going to be one of the three musketeers, I want to be the good looking one.” She wrapped herself around Daniel's arm. “Well...Athos,” she cocked a questioning eyebrow at Daniel, “what's next?”

“Porthos,” Daniel said to Carolyn, “you need to stay here with d'Artagnan,” he nodded in the direction of Lieutenant Stolz in the next bed, “and Aramis and I will head back to the gate room.”

“Aramis must be the good looking one, right?”

“Why the gate room?” Carolyn asked. 

“Because if someone set a bomb where it would do the most damage, it makes sense they'd set it in the gate room. The naquada would enhance any explosion.”

“Good thinking,” Vala said. She slipped her shoulder under Daniel's arm leading him in the direction of the elevator. “So Aramis was the good looking one?”

“Of course,” he stopped Vala for a moment before they left the infirmary and turned back to Carolyn. “Porthos, if Louis the XIII calls while we're gone, tell him we're busy saving the world,” he smiled down at Vala, “again.”

“That's what we do, darling.” She gave him a careful squeeze. “So these musketeers, did they do anything fun when they weren't saving the world?”

*********************************************************************************

The trip to the gate room took a toll on Daniel. He was shaking by the time they opened the door. 

“I don't suppose you'd sit this one out,” Vala said. 

Daniel steadied himself with a hand on the wall. “A colloquialism? Very nice.”

“Teal'c's been teaching me.”

Daniel laughed. “I should have known. I'm fine.” He shifted and the room blurred in front of him.

“You're such a terrible liar.” She reached over to rub his arm, the small smile not hiding her worry.

“Vala, we need to do this. Quickly.” 

His pleading look got through to her and she squared her shoulders. “Alright,” she sighed, “where do we start?” She waved her hand over the room.

Daniel looked around carefully. “Some light would help. Do you think you can override the emergency lighting?”

“I'll be right back.” She turned and made her way up the stairs to the control room. 

The blinking of the emergency lights matched the pounding in Daniel's head. He knew he didn't have much time. That was funny. Not much time. Time was running out for him one way or another. He was going to pass out or get blown up, it was a race to see which one happened first. Keeping one hand on the wall to steady himself, he moved around the outside of the room. Where would someone plant a bomb? The better question might be why hadn't it gone off yet? From behind the gate he looked carefully around. The gate was made of naquada...which would amplify an explosion...so the bomb must be.... His brain felt sluggish and the ripple of light sent a dagger sharp pain into his head.

“Daniel?” 

He looked up to see a worried face above him. “Carolyn?” He wondered when he'd fallen to his knees. Had Vala called for the doctor because of him? “Why aren't you in the infirmary?”

She knelt down beside him and gave a small chuckle even as she ran her hands around the back of his head. “D'Artagnan woke up a few minutes ago. He said he'd wait for Louis XIII while we saved the world.” 

Daniel grimaced as the touch of the doctors hands made his headache worse. “Did you tell Stolz that he's d'Artagnan?”

“The situation seemed bad enough with making Lieutenant Stolz think we'd been taken over by some alien influence. I just told him I needed to go help you. He was lucid enough that I felt I could leave him alone for a few minutes. Once we get the gate operational, I'll go back and get him. He's on a gurney at the end of the hall.” She continued her delicate probing until her hands pressed a spot that made Daniel groan. “I take it that hurts.” She leaned back, no longer smiling. “It's worse?" She didn't even wait for an answer. "Daniel, you should be in the infirmary. This is more than a concussion. You need a CAT scan and maybe surgery.” She placed a hand on Daniel's shoulder. 

Daniel took a few deep breaths to steady himself. “I told you, once this is over, I'll spend a week in bed. But nobody's going to have a week if we don't find the bomb.” He looked up at two Carolyns floating in front of him. Double Valas floated in front of him a second later. 

“What's the matter with him?” He felt Vala's hand on his arm.

“It's a head injury. I need to have him in the infirmary. Sooner would be better than later.” The double Valas and double Carolyns held a double conversation as their words echoed in his head. God, he needed to focus. 

“'Him' is right here.” He cleared his throat, trying to keep the slur from his voice. “And don't you dare flash that damn light in my eyes.” Even with his double vision, he could see her reaching for her pocket. He attempted to get his legs under him but they'd turned to rubber while he was sitting on the floor. “We've got to find the bomb before it goes off.”

“Find the bomb--here?” Carolyn said skeptically.

“There's supposed to be a bomb in the room, according to Daniel. That's why everyone evacuated, remember? But Daniel says we can't dial out again.”

“Yes, we have to dial out.” Daniel interrupted Vala before she had a chance to tell Carolyn what she already knew. He wondered if Jack had felt like this during his interminable lectures. Maybe, if he got out of this in one piece, he should apologize to Jack for being so vocal when it wasn't really needed. Although most of the time he did have something important to say. His mind was wandering.

Vala's face came into alarming focus just in front of him. “You told me we can't dial out again. Make up your mind.”

“When we find the bomb we have to send it through the Stargate.”

“Wouldn't that just send the problem somewhere else? That hardly seems fair, although I can think of a few worlds I'd like to send a bomb to if you're looking for suggestions.”

“Daniel.” It was Carolyn's turn to interrupt this time. “Do you know a place we could send it?”

He tried to get the multiple images to merge into one. He blinked his eyes wondering which Carolyn he should answer.

“Daniel!”

“Um...yes. I need...to get to the control room. First we need to find the...” his mouth and his brain had disconnected. He couldn't form the words to tell them what he wanted.

“Give me a hint, Daniel. Twenty-eight floors, remember?”

He scanned the room again. It was in this room, he was sure of that, but where? His eyes swept the red electrical box and he knew. Of course! That explained the electrical surge. Daniel's hand flopped around on the end of his arm as he tried to point in the right direction. With that the room blurred.

“Daniel, don't you dare!” He felt a hand on his face. “Hey, stay awake.” Vala's irritating voice drilled a hole in his head. The woman had all the grace of an bull in a china shop.

“I'm awake.” He swatted the hand away.

“You'd better be. No sleeping until the job's done.”

Right. They had a job to do. 

 

“Who's going to cut the wires?” Daniel looked at Carolyn and Vala. He'd been right. A small device the size of a matchbox was attached to the breaker. “We have to cut the wires to be able to throw the bomb through the gate. We need to cut them.” His voice sounded garbled and he was repeating himself.

“With what?” Vala asked. She stood on one side and Carolyn on the other, each holding on to an arm. 

With what. “Um...wire cutters. In the cabinet in the back of the control room.”

“I'll go,” said Vala. She sprinted away leaving Daniel without support. Carolyn quickly stepped in putting her shoulder under Daniel's arm.

“Well, you can't cut the wires,” Carolyn said. 

“Why not?” Daniel asked, offended. “I probably know more about electrical wiring than either of you.” He wondered if Carolyn thought him incapable of handling the job. 

“Oh, I have no doubt you know more about this than Vala and I, but I don't think you can actually see the wires. You can't, can you?”

Daniel looked at the blur in front of him. He couldn't see the breaker box, let alone the wires. As the shapes in front of him shifted back and forth, he wondered again about a breaker switch that controlled the Stargate. Did anyone else think it peculiar that the most amazing device on the planet, one created but the ancients, was controlled by a simple breaker? Maybe Siler would know. 

“Daniel?” Carolyn tightened her grip a little. “Are you okay?”

Silly question, Daniel thought. “Fine, but you're right, I can't see the wires.”

“That's what I thought.”

A voice from the control room came over the speaker. “The cabinet's locked.”

Daniel jumped at the noise and then regretted the motion as the room swayed. “Break it,” he said. 

“What?”

“Break it,” Carolyn shouted. “Find something lying around and break it.”

“Right.” 

“The three musketeers, huh?” Carolyn asked.

Daniel struggled to get a queasy stomach under control. “Maybe we need to improve our screening process.”

Despite the seriousness of the situation, Carolyn laughed.

“Are you and Daniel telling jokes while I'm gone?” Vala said dropping the tool box on the ground in front of them.

Daniel winced as the sound echoed in his head. 

“Sorry,” Vala said. “Now what?”

“Now we cut the wires,” he said.

“Alright, which one do we cut first?”

“Um,” Daniel tried to remember all the times he'd helped Sam in her lab. He remembered digs where he'd helped to set up small generators. There was an order to hooking up electrical wires--or unhooking them, he knew that, but did it apply here? “What color are the wires?”

“Black, blue and white,” Vala answered.

“That doesn't sound right.”

“No,” Carolyn said, “that doesn't sound right.” She peered at the wires. “Can we cut them all at once?”

“No, I don't think we should do that.” Daniel's head hurt. Even if knew the answer he didn't think he could remember it in time. “Time,” he asked. “How much time do we have?”

Carolyn looked at her watch. “Six minutes.”

“I say we cut the blue one last,” Vala said.

“The blue one last? How did you decide that?” Daniel asked.

“Your eyes are blue. We'll leave the blue for last.”

“Vala! You can't be--”

“Okay, then we'll cut the white one next,” Carolyn said, ignoring Daniel's objection.

“Why the white one?” Vala asked curiously.

“Because I have a white lab coat.”

“What!”

“Good idea,” Vala said. “That means we cut the black one first. My hair is black, and I'm a very outgoing person so we cut the black one first.” She raised the wire cutters to the bomb.

“Hold it,” Daniel shouted—and then cringed at the pain his own voice caused. “What if we're wrong.”

“In four minutes, it's not going to make a difference,” Carolyn said.

The two faces turned to him for the final decision, Vala with her hand still poised to cut the wires. Daniel's head pounded. They had to make a decision, and he didn't have anything better to offer. 

Vala reached over to rub his arm. “All for one?”

“I can't believe we're doing this,” Daniel complained.

“One for all?” Carolyn said, squeezing him around the waist. 

The seconds counted down. 

“Three minutes,” Carolyn said.

For a precious few seconds, Daniel thought an explosion would be a good thing if it ended the pounding in his head. However, he had two, no three (he couldn't forget d'Artagnan in the hallway) people depending on him. 

“Do it.”

*********************************************************************************

He woke slowly to the sound of voices. He'd heard them before as he'd drifted in and out of consciousness, but he hadn't been able to stay awake long enough to make much sense of it. Jack had been there, Sam, and Mitchell. And Vala, he was certain of that. It was Vala's voice he could hear now.

“But I was the one who actually cut the wires of the bomb—a great risk to myself, of course. And Carolyn threw the bomb through the gate once we got it open.”

“Daniel put in the coordinates and we sent it to P7...something. I'm sorry, I'm not good at Stargate address yet,” Carolyn said.

“P7R 299,” came a groggy voice from the bed.

“Daniel?”

“Jack?”

“Hey, you awake?”

“Apparently.” He looked around to see Jack sitting beside his bed with Vala hanging over the back of his chair. Colonel Mitchell stood on the other side along with Carolyn who was watching him closely, the clipboard hugged to her chest.

“The bomb?” Daniel asked. 

“Gone,” Jack said. “Good idea, sending it through the gate.”

“Got the idea from some new guy on the base,” Daniel said, nodding in Mitchell's direction.

Mitchell smiled. “How ya doin'?”

Daniel thought the conversation was a little surreal considering the last thing he remembered clearly was sitting on the floor in the gate room. He had some vague recollection of sitting in front of the dialing computer, Vala beside him punching in numbers, but nothing after that. Looking around the room, he saw worried faces but no panicked ones so he assumed their plan had worked. 

“Head hurts,” he finally answered.

Carolyn looked down at him. “I'm not surprised. A fractured skull is a serious injury and as soon as I can clear the room, I'm going to pull out my penlight,” he thought he detected a note of humor in her voice—or maybe revenge, “and have at look at the damage.” Carolyn's image in front of him was blurry but at least there was only one of her now. He groaned at the thought of the penlight. 

Jack snorted. “Proof of the hardness of your head. Doctor Lam tells me you should have been in the infirmary a long time before you passed out in the control room.”

“I figured there wouldn't be an infirmary to go to if we didn't get rid of the bomb.”

“Good point. So Mitchell, why didn't you think of throwing the bomb through the gate when you first got the intel?”

“Sorry, Sir. Like the man said, I'm new here. It's going to take me a little while to get up to speed with the way SG1 operates.”

Jack pushed himself up off the chair. “I think we should call Landry to let him know what's going on here, and maybe set up a review evacuation procedures. I might have send out a memo that says, 'Don't leave the archaeologist until last.'” He reached down to squeeze Daniel's hand before he left. “I'll be back.”

Daniel listened to the two military men continue their conversation on their way out the door. He caught the way Mitchell glared at Vala while she give him a stubborn look back. His head throbbed from all the activity around him, and as happy as he was to see everybody again, he really wanted to go back to sleep. His eyelids felt heavy and the feel of Vala's hand rubbing his upper arm relaxed him until he had to blink his eyes to stay awake. “What's up with you and Mitchell?”

Vala squirmed. “I was reprimanded,” she said putting the words in air quotes.

“Reprimanded?”

“He yelled at me,” she huffed.

Daniel could imagine Mitchell's...irritation when he found out that Vala had stayed behind. He tried to hide a smile. “What about you Carolyn? Did you get reprimanded?”

“No,” Carolyn said, “I got yelled at. By General Landry.”

Oh, so you got yelled at twice? I'll bet that was bad.”

Carolyn concentrated her efforts on properly recording the data on the machines surrounding Daniel, but he could see her confusion.

“Once by General Landry...and once by your father,” he said gently.

Surprise flickered across her face before she looked down at him. “What about you, Daniel? Did you get reprimanded?”

“Oh, yeah. Jack made sure he read me the riot act.” Of that Daniel had a vivid recollection from one of the times he'd been awake earlier. Somewhere in the rather one-side conversation (Daniel had been much too tired to answer back), he remembered at least one “Dammit, Daniel” along with some dire threats about what would happen to his sorry ass if he ever pulled such a stunt again.

“Read you...?” Vala asked. “I don't recall anyone reading anything.” 

“It means he got yelled at,” Carolyn told her. “So you got yelled at twice. Once by General O'Neill...and once by Jack.” Now it was Daniel's turn to look surprised. Carolyn smiled. “You don't seem very upset about it.”

“I am upset about it. I mean I'm upset that I worried everybody.”

“But...I hear a but,” Vala said.

“Well, it's not the first time I've been yelled at,” Daniel admitted.

“Of that, I'm sure,” Vala said.

Daniel glared at her. “Didn't Doctor Lam ask everybody to leave?”

“I'm not everybody.”

“Of that, *I'm* sure,” Daniel muttered.

“I'm mean I'm one of the three musketeers. We need to stick together, right?” She bounced on the bed in her enthusiasm, not noticing when Daniel winced.

“I think Daniel's right. Maybe it's time for everyone to leave,” she waved her hands in a shooing motion, “so that Daniel can get some rest.”

“Oh,” Vala said, hopping down, “sure, I see.” 

“Get some sleep, Daniel,” Carolyn said. “You've still got five days left.”

Daniel's eyes opened wide. “Five days? I'm not staying here five--”

“You promised you'd check yourself in for a week. I'm holding you to that promise.”

“What? No, I was kidding.” Surely she couldn't expect him to honor a promise made under duress. 

“I told General O'Neill about our conversation and he told me you always honor your commitments.”

Daniel narrowed his eyes and looked at the doctor's serious stare. “You did not.” She never blinked. “Oh, you did. That's...that's...cheating. You and Vala stayed on purpose. I'm the only one who was here accidentally, and I'm the one being punished.”

“Then the next time you *accidentally* stay behind, try not to hit the ramp with your head.” She gave him a little pat on the arm.

“No surgery?” Daniel asked.

“No surgery, no thanks to you. Bruising, swelling, lots of drugs, and five more days in that bed.”

Fatigue was beginning to take it's toll on Daniel, and while he didn't intend to give up without a fight and stay in the infirmary for five more days (after all he knew some people in high places, and Jack could be bought with the promise of a good game of chess) a nap right now sounded pretty good. His eyes felt swollen and his head throbbed.

“So...Athos?” Daniel opened his eyes to see Vala's face an couple of inches from his own, his hand firmly trapped in hers. “All for one and one for all?”

He grinned at her and heard Carolyn's chuckle. “One for all. You guys did a great job.” He yawned. “How's d'Artagnan?” Daniel asked suddenly remembering Lieutenant Stolz.

“Doing well,” Carolyn answered, “and totally unaware of his secret identity.”

Daniel's mouth stretched into another yawn. “Sorry,” he said. “And you, Porthos?” 

Now it was Vala's turn to laugh. 

“Porthos” sent an evil glare in Vala's direction which, naturally, she ignored. “I'm fine. But Colonel Mitchell is right, this place does take some getting used to.” 

Carolyn went about her job with quiet efficieny as she continued the conversation. “The three musketeers? Do you think we get a special team designation?”

Daniel struggled to stay awake a little longer. “I'm not sure Jack would understand—or General Landry. Maybe we should keep this to ourselves, keep it our secret.” He saw Carolyn inject something into his IV line and knew he would be asleep in seconds.

“I like secrets,” Vala whispered. “Let's make this our secret.”

Carolyn smiled down at him. “How long are you going to keep it secret that Aramis became a priest after he left the musketeers?”

“A what?” Vala sputtered. “Me? A priest? Daniel!”

Daniel heard Jack and Colonel Mitchell yell Vala's name from the hallway just before he fell sleep.


End file.
